The notion almost sounds blasphemous, but give the NFL credit for wanting to keep the game exciting. The question is whether keeping the game exciting will turn off a large sector of fans.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told NFL Media's Rich Eisen on Monday Night's edition of "NFL Total Access" that the league's competition committee is considering whether to abolish the extra-point attempt as it is done now.
"The extra point is almost automatic," Goodell said, according to NFL.com. "I believe we had five missed extra points this year out of 1,200 some odd (attempts). So it's a very small fraction of the play, and you want to add excitement with every play.
"There's one proposal in particular that I've heard about. It's automatic that you get seven points when you score a touchdown, but you could potentially go for an eighth point, either by running or passing the ball, so if you fail, you go back to six."
One facet of fans Goodell likely has not considered is the fantasy football crowd. A big part of the NFL's current success is the support it receives from fantasy football leagues. Would those players be in favor of a rules change?
Though the league would never address it publicly, it almost certainly would have to consider how the rule change would affect fantasy players, whose interest in the game is derived largely from the fantasy value. The NFL certainly would not want to alienate that market.
Goodell added that the competition committee would have to try to predict whether the elimination of the extra point would discourage teams from attempting two-point conversions.
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick would seem to be a supporter of the move, according to CBSSports.com.
"I would be in favor of not seeing it be an over 99 percent conversion rate," Belichick said, as reported by CBSSport.com. "It's virtually automatic. That's just not the way the extra point was put into the game. It was an extra point that you actually had to execute and it was executed by players who were not specialists, they were position players. It was a lot harder for them to do... I don't think that's really a very exciting play because it's so automatic."
CBSSports.com added that Belichick didn't elaborate whether he wanted the try to be eliminated or replaced.
And using the proposal Goodell mentioned, how boring would it be for fans watching the game at home watch the camera focus on a coach telling the referee he'll take the seven points?
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